Full Size Mechanical Weighing Machines

Overseer

Western Thunderer
This book is not directly written about British railway practices but contains a lot of detail about weighbridges built by Pooley and W&T Avery which will be identical with their products sold in Britain. Mechanical Weighing Machines is a 330 page paperback book by Arthur Brook recently published by the Australian Railway Historical Society Victorian Division.

It looks in detail at weighbridges, platform scales and all other types of weighing machines used by the Victorian Railways. As well as the Pooley and Avery truck (railway) and cart weighbridges of various capacities there are details of earlier Fairbanks (from US) timber deck cart weighbridges and VR built versions of cast iron weighbridges. The Pooley model 508 locomotive balancing table, still in use for preserved steam, also features. Many original drawings and manufacturers publicity material are included. The book is a bit daunting at first but easy to read and browse once you get into it.

This is the second book by Arthur Brook in the 'Victorian Railways Reference Series', the first one is titled 'Buffer Stops and Baulks'. Buffer Stops and Baulks is similarly comprehensive but there is almost no similarity between VR buffer stops and UK buffer stops so is unlikely to be of interest to UK modellers.

The ISBN is 978-0-9876054-1-2. It is available from -
https://www.railwaybookshop.com.au//shopdisplayproducts.asp?search=yes&bc=no&catalogid=5067
and should be available from -
http://www.arhsvic.org.au/index.php/publications-sales/books
but their website hadn't been updated to include it when I checked.

Even though half the content may not be of direct relevance to the UK, I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in weighbridges or who have wondered how they work or pondered the differences between the various versions.

A sample page:
Mech Weigh.jpg
 

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Western Thunderer
'Tis a very serious publication... when it arrived at the shop, I couldn't help but wonder how someone had found so many pages worth of content to write about one seemingly obscure subject, but it's actually quite the trip down the rabbit hole.
 
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